Geocaching in June (11th)

The weather in Tucson during the month of June is usually stupid hot. Today, it was tolerable at 80-something. It was overcast and it seemed to us like the perfect day for geocaching since I am on Leave (military vacation). We went out and found some geocaches with much success! Here are a couple pictures of our time out today. Enjoy!!

Birthday Week

The birthday week is finally over and Bradley has had quite a time. He had the party at Grama's house and also got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's on his birthday. The kids had a lot of fun and then ate cake at the house afterward. I am proud to know that I passed on some great things to my children like how to play See-Food. That is something that my dad passed to me and now I can pass it on to my children. Enjoy the pictures!

WARNING: Zooming in on these photos is not recommended!

Brad's Memorial Day/Birthday Celebration

We had Bradley's first birthday party last night at his Great Grama's house. It was a great time! His birthday isn't until Wednesday, but we got together with Grama and Uncle John and Aunt Rachel. They had a cake and gifts for him. These are a couple pictures of Brad and the cake.

Prayer Reminder/Journal

I am using this new prayer reminder site online. It is also used as a prayer journal and it is free. It is called the Echo Prayer Manager. It will keep record of any prayers that you enter and it will send you reminders through your email or as a text message with specific or random prayer entries. What a great idea! I am really excited about using it and I think it will be great to get prayer reminders throughout the day on my phone by text message. Check it out!

About HIM...Memorial Day Prayer

Okay, I realize that there are very, very few people that read this blog. Not counting my wife, maybe none. That's okay. It is kind of fun to write stuff and it is fun to attach pictures of the kids and work.

I changed the name of the blog (if anyone even noticed) because I am trying to change a few things in my life. I am trying to adjust the way I live my life. It is kind of hard sometimes to remember that it is not about me. I get too wrapped up in life and the stresses of work and day-to-day activities. I love the Lord, but I don't always give him the credit he deserves. This life that I am living is all About HIM. In the times that it isn't, it should be. I praise the Lord that in spite of my selfishness, he does amazing things all around me.

This being Memorial Day weekend, I am reminded of those that have fallen in combat throughout history. Even more, I am reminded of those that I know personally that have been killed in this war we are fighting in Iraq. Also, I know friends that have been seriously injured while fighting the war in Afghanistan. Back in January of this year, there were three fellow EOD techs that were killed in Iraq. A few days before they were killed, one of the armored vehicles that their unit used was prayed over and a prayer was written on the door saying "Dear God, protect this vehicle and those who are inside...Amen." That very night, the vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb and completely destroyed. All four of the passengers walked away unharmed.

This story is amazing! God performed a miracle. There isn't any reason that these people should have survived. The part that bothers me about this story is that even though most would say that they believe that the prayer had something to do with the survival of these individuals, very few, if any will make any changes in their life. It is just "pretty cool." They need our prayer; that they will have softened hearts and an open mind to experience Jesus. I don't pretend to know the condition of the hearts of those who have lost their lives, but I do know that many of them didn't know Jesus. There are still many who don't know Jesus as their savior over in the war zone. Pray for these Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors and Marines on this Memorial Day.

Love & Respect

Lately, I have been reading an eye-opening book called Love and Respect. It is written by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. It examines what the Bible has to say in ("Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." Ephesians 5:33) and gives a "new" approach to how married couples relate to each other. This isn't really a new approach. Hello, God gave it to us 2000 years ago. It is obvious that we haven't taken this type of approach in most of our studies on how men and women relate to each other. I was a little sceptical at first about some of the ideas and I thought that I had read all there was to read about marriage relationships and I didn't think I was going to find anything new in this book. Wow, I was wrong! I highly recommend this book for any and ALL couples that have a desire to better their marriage relationship. This book has changed the way I look at my marriage relationship. I hope that my relationship will get better and better and that I will be able to apply more biblical principles to my marriage.

Geocaching with Cholla

We have been geocaching for about three years now. Geocaching has taken us to so many interesting places locally and even around the world. Every new location is a different experience. We are now in Arizona, and again it is totally different from anywhere else. We have encountered the joys of cactus. We have found quite a few caches in Tucson now and there is one particular cactus called the "jumping" Cholla. This has turned out to be an evil plant. It is a cactus with needles that very easily grab onto clothing or anything and don't want to let go. Both of the kids and Jaime have been stuck badly by these cactus plants. For some reason, people like to place geocaches around places that are surrounded by cholla.

Airman Leadership School Pictures

I finally got the pictures of my ALS graduation. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force #11 (Campanale) spoke at the ceremony. The first picture is of me receiving the Distinguished Graduate Award with Colonel Laughbaum, the Air Force Association President and Command Chief Parkhill. The second is of me getting my graduation certificate and the last one at the bottom is Chief Campanale giving his speech.

Ringtone Site/Godzilla Site

I just recently found this site that has all kinds of cool ringtones and sounds that I have been downloading to my phone. It is pretty cool. The site is MyxerTones. I found a godzilla ringtone for my dad on the site. He is the owner of the website www.ohmygodzilla.com. Check that out too. This picture is from his site.

Geocaching

"You are the search engine"-- that is what our license plate reads. One of the things that our family likes to do together is geocaching. If you are not familiar with the sport/game/activity, you can check it out at geocaching.com. It is basically a worldwide game that involves finding "caches" using a GPS. It doesn't cost anything to do it and you are not gonna run out of geocaches to find. There are currently 399,624 active caches worldwide in almost every country. We have had so much fun doing this as a family. It is a great way to spend time with the kids and it is something to do on vacations and such. So far, we have found 222 caches in Alaska, California, Alabama, Hawaii, Arizona, Oregon and even one in Afghanistan (while I was deployed there). Check our profile out at geocaching. We are "jaidan" on the site, and you can view pictures and postings on all of our caches found.

ALS Graduation

I recently graduated from ALS (Airman Leadership School). This is a required military course if I plan on getting promoted to Staff Sergeant. I have pictures of the graduation and a couple of me receiving awards, but I am waiting on the photos. I will post them when I get them. Here is one photo of Jme and I before we leave for the graduation ceremony. It is a big dinner and ceremony to celebrate completing the course. I am not sure it is necessary to do all of that, but I am just glad that I am done with the course and will be able to return to work...I think.

The Kids On Field Trips

On our way to Tucson from Alaska, we stopped at the Phoenix Zoo. We also have made a trip to the Desert Museum in Tucson. These are some of the pictures from those trips. The kids seem to enjoy the field trips.


Bethany was trying to drink her coffee through the mask.



Bradley was so glad to get some kettle corn!





I am new to blogging, but Jaime does it all the time. She wouldn't let me put pictures of her on the blog, but I can put some of B&B up here.